


why don't you stay here with me

by trulyfine (ssstrychnine)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Sleeping Together, really just sleeping....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 23:17:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8228119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssstrychnine/pseuds/trulyfine
Summary: yixing can't sleep without him





	

It takes longer than it should for Yixing to realise what helps him sleep the most. Really, it should be obvious. He’s in China, lying awake, and he calls Baekhyun and they talk until their voices are swollen with sleep and then he wakes up eight hours later, the first full night of sleep he’s had in months. Or he’s in Korea and he falls asleep on Baekhyun’s shoulder and he wakes up to Baekhyun’s smile. Or they’re at the airport and Baekhyun’s hand is at the small of his back and he sleeps for the whole flight. It’s always Baekhyun, even when they have countries between them.

He figures he doesn’t notice because he doesn’t notice a lot of things. He can remember a thousand points of choreography and he can pick a song out of thin air but he’s never entered a single password correctly the first time. He talks to Baekhyun a lot and it’s not always in the early hours of the morning and it’s not always just because he can’t sleep. He only realises it when one of his staff points it out, bringing him dinner at some absurd hour.

“You should call him,” she says, gentle as always.

“Who?”

“Baekhyun, from your group.”

Yixing almost asks why but as soon as she says it he knows what she’s talking about. He taps at the polystyrene food container with his chopsticks. He won't be able to sleep for awhile after eating anyway. He wants to hear Baekhyun's voice.

“Maybe, thank you.”

It feels different after that, scrolling through his contacts to Baekhyun’s number, like it means more, but he decides it doesn't matter. He needs to sleep, he’s forgotten the normal structure of a day, he so rarely does anything in the proper order anymore. Baekhyun picks up immediately. It's three in the morning in Korea. Of course Baekhyun will be having the same problem he is.

“Can't sleep?” Baekhyun asks instead of a greeting and Yixing feels even more blind not to have realised this earlier. Baekhyun is like a lullaby.

“I ate late,” he says, “and now I'm too full to sleep.”

“You should drink water.” Yixing can always tell when Baekhyun is smiling. “You should play me a song.”

Yixing does as he’s asked, grabbing a bottle of water and then his guitar from where it's leaning against the wall. He puts Baekhyun on speaker and he hums through a song that doesn’t have lyrics yet. It’s slow and smooth and lazy, it’s the sleep he should be getting at night put into a song. Baekhyun hums along with him as soon as he picks up the way it moves. Yixing thinks their voices sound nice together, have always sounded nice together, but they almost never have a chance to prove it. He finishes his song, taps the flats of his fingers across the strings of his guitar, drinks some water. On the other end he imagines Baekhyun is sitting in bed, wriggling himself deeper into his pillows.

They talk for a little over an hour. Yixing slides down the wall into his bed, shedding clothing every so often, making Baekhyun laugh when he asks him to “just hold on I have to take my shirt off”. Their voices turn to muddled consonants and vowels. Yixing forgets he’s supposed to be speaking Korean and stumbles back into Mandarin and sometimes even Changsha dialect. Baekhyun whines and he apologises and repeats himself in the proper language. Sometimes Baekhyun recognises a word or a phrase that Yixing has halfheartedly tried to teach him and he repeats it back until he gets it right and Yixing thinks that might be one of his favourite things in the world, being listened to and thought about like that.

“You sound cute,” he says.

“Of course I do,” Baekhyun laughs.

With the realisation that it’s Baekhyun who helps him sleep, Yixing stops being able to without him at all. He tries everything to make it false, dancing until his muscles ache, hot tea and long showers, but he always gives in and calls him and finally falls asleep with his phone on the pillow beside him. It’s not really an efficient way of getting enough rest. Sometimes Baekhyun doesn’t answer and sometimes Yixing can’t call and he’s awake until his vision is feathery grey. Usually it’s Baekhyun who calls him, when it’s been so long. Yixing doubts that he does it for the same reason he does but it’s nice to know he’s in his thoughts.

“I think... I can’t sleep without you,” he tells him one day, deciding that he may as well. It’s too stupid and confusing to keep to himself. It makes him too breathless.

“Of course you can’t,” says Baekhyun, nonplussed, “I’m like your blanket.” Yixing thinks about this for a moment, Baekhyun tangled around his calves, tucked under his chin, soft and warm.

“I guess you are,” he says, finally. He doesn’t think he minds it.

He goes back to Korea. He gets off a plane and goes to the dorms and they don’t have anything until the next day so he meets everyone and they are as comfortable and welcoming as always. He allows this, hugs and greetings, but all he can see is Baekhyun. His hair is different but his smile isn’t.

“I have to sleep,” he tells everyone, and he reaches forward and grabs Baekhyun by the wrist and drags him down the hallway. He can hear Minseok laughing behind them but he doesn’t care.

They go to Yixing’s room. They keep it for him and it remains mostly untouched when he isn’t there and it feels dusty and still when he returns. He hasn’t slept in more than twenty four hours and every time he blinks it feels like his eyelids are scratching at his eyes. Baekhyun hasn’t said anything. Yixing presses his thumb to the knob of bone at Baekhyun’s wrist.

“I need you to... can you just... I’m very tired,” he says, too tired to explain it properly. Baekhyun doesn’t look confused at all, he just presses his lips together and nods. Yixing lets go of him, falls onto his bed, not bothering to take his clothing off. He will regret it when he wakes up, sticky and crumpled, but he doesn’t care yet. He buries his face in his pillow. Baekhyun follows a minute later, sitting up next to him. He is playing with his phone and Yixing doesn’t care, it’s just enough that he’s there. He tugs at the hem of Baekhyun’s shirt and then curls his fingers under so he’s touching the skin at his hip. Baekhyun shivers. Yixing sleeps.

When he wakes up it’s morning and Baekhyun is gone but he doesn’t mind. He dresses in soft clothing, walks down the halls, finds him in the kitchen. They eat together, sitting at the kitchen bench. Yixing yawns. Baekhyun cards his fingers through Yixing’s hair, nails dragging across his scalp, just hard enough to make him wriggle. Neither of them say anything and everything is sunshine. Their knees bump, they eat slowly. Yixing thinks they might have something more than just sleep. He drapes an arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders and Baekhyun leans into him.

Only Jongdae questions it. Everyone knows the particular ways Baekhyun and Yixing have of touching the other members and it’s no different now that they’re sleeping in the same bed. It’s only sleeping, the rest of their days are the same as they’ve always been. They practice together and eat together and play together. But Jongdae knows Yixing better than that and he’s never been able to keep quiet about anything.

“Do you like him?” he asks, eyes a little narrowed, not suspicious or concerned, just curious. Maybe a little annoyed that he has to ask at all.

“Obviously,” Yixing smiles.

“No, I mean romantically.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I can sleep when I’m with him, what does that mean?”

“What do you want it to mean?”

“I want...” Yixing sighs, “I want him to always be there.”

Both of those things are true; he wants him always and he doesn’t know if it’s romantic. He hasn’t really thought about it. It’s probably another oversight but he doesn’t really care. Even if it is romantic he doesn’t think much will change. Romance hasn’t really been an option for Yixing for a long time. He’s not good at doing things by halves and that includes loving someone.

He goes back to China and their phone calls resume. Sometimes he can’t find time for days on end or he forgets about sleep altogether because he’s focused on a tune he can’t get out of his head or the way he wants to make his body move. Baekhyun calls him then, he still knows exactly when he’s on the verge of collapse. He calls and tells Yixing stories about the other members until his voice is sandpaper and Yixing is half in dreams.

“Vivi is finally listening to Sehun, he’s doing tricks and everything.”

“What about you?” Yixing asks. “What have you been doing?”

“Nothing,” Yixing can hear the smile in his voice. “Missing you.”

“I miss you too.”

“I want...” Baekhyun takes a breath and it shudders across the line. “I want to kiss you when I see you.”

“Oh,” breathes Yixing, “alright.” Baekhyun laughs and the sound is soaked in relief and Yixing’s chest is on fire. He feels a little breathless, a _lot_ breathless. Maybe everything will change now after all. He doesn’t really mind.

“Good,” says Baekhyun.

“Good,” whispers Yixing.

“You should sleep.”

“I don’t think I can now.”

“Ah, I’ve lost my touch?”

“I think if you were here and you touched me I’d never sleep again.”

“Don’t say things like that or I’ll have to get on a plane.”

“Good, come here then.”

Yixing goes back to Korea. He gets off a plane and goes to the dorms and they don’t have anything until the next day so he meets everyone and they are as comfortable and welcoming as always. He allows this, hugs and greetings, but all he can see is Baekhyun. His hair is different and so is his smile.

“I have to sleep,” he tells everyone, and he reaches forward and grabs Baekhyun by the hand, braids their fingers together, drags him down the hallway. Jongdae whoops behind them, louder than anything, and they both laugh and Baekhyun turns to pull the fingers but doesn’t let go of Yixing’s hand.

In Yixing’s room they shut the door and Baekhyun tries to back Yixing into a corner but he just laughs, presses his hands to Baekhyun’s shoulder, pushes him until he dissolves into smiles instead. Yixing can hardly breathe but he doesn’t care, he kisses Baekhyun anyway, hands at his waist, and Baekhyun hums happily under him and kisses back, draping his arms over Yixing’s shoulders. It doesn’t feel like sleeping or dreaming. It feels like falling into place, like finding something you’ve been looking for for your whole life. Baekhyun tastes like mints and Yixing wonders if he prepared for this and kisses him deeper, holds him tighter.

They fall asleep together, talking, lying on Yixing’s bed. Yixing keeps his hands on Baekhyun’s skin, pressed to the space beneath his collarbone, above his heartbeat, or at his waist, the way it dips, his hipbone, his jaw. Baekhyun laughs a lot, wrinkles his nose, pokes at Yixing’s dimple until he pushes him away and then he comes back to kiss him a hundred times in revenge. Yixing doesn’t mind. They sleep, together, like they always have, even in separate beds, separate cities, separate countries. It’s better when they’re together though, and waking up together is better still.

 

**Author's Note:**

> i listened a lot to [this song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiTAs2XRxD4&ab_channel=Seoulight) while i wrote this so that's where the title came from. happy birthday to my ultimate bias zhang yixing too!! what a sweetheart he is. he deserves only good things. thank you for reading! ill be back to baeksoo v soon. say hello to me [on tumblr here](http://www.tabeorin.tumblr.com) if you'd like.


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